As an EC member of a few years it's become apparent to me that the Exec Club's raison d'etre has changed from rewarding frequent flyers to providing a means to compensate us for the many failures of the airline to deliver an acceptable level of service.
So:
- Flights delayed ? Don't worry sir, you can sit in our comfortable lounge for the next three hours and drink a few glasses of wine while thinking about what you might have achieved at your critical business meeting.
- Catering strike affecting flights ? We're very sorry you've been forced to spend an unplanned night in Hamburg. Have 50000 air miles on us.
- In a hurry ? With a silver card you can bagsy a seat at the front of the plane so you can beat everyone else to baggage reclaim only to find that your bag has gone to Madrid by mistake. Or maybe it's still at Gatwick. Here's the phone number of a call centre in Newcastle full of people who don't know where it is either.
etc. etc.
Please forgive my cynicism but unless you fly enough to qualify for a gold card (for which you can expect to get a few upgrades to Club/First) I don't think the Exec Club is worth the trouble.
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